Thiago alves missed the weight again... Should really move up a weight class, he must be doing some extreme 20+ pound cut already for this weight class and missing the weight is not on IMO. He is a solid fighter, i like his straight forward steamtrain style, but losing respect because of these weigh in issues. Dont care if it is by just a touch, there is a limit for a reason.

SpugFab wrote: I've already given up on TUF a long time ago, time to bin the main events too.

HAHA! Just spoke to heinrich about this at the VF week, how you dumped TUF after one season and how it has improved since. Coincidence? I think not. Which is why i support you binning the main events too...

but aye, it was a bad show. Mayas fight was a bit boring, main fight was a bit boring and uneventful, not all that many exciting undercard fights...

Oh well, they all cant be fantastic! Looking forward to the Mir fight now on the next UFC!

c'moon - you guys are just taking easy and predictable pot shots here i think. How many freak show fights has UFC put on in the past 5 years out of how many hundreds of fights? How many opportunities to make a quick buck have they passed for not putting on more freak show fights?

I think this exception shows that as a rule UFC is still very much about developing the sport.

JP wrote:c'moon - you guys are just taking easy and predictable pot shots here i think. How many freak show fights has UFC put on in the past 5 years out of how many hundreds of fights? How many opportunities to make a quick buck have they passed for not putting on more freak show fights?

I think this exception shows that as a rule UFC is still very much about developing the sport.

Sure, Japan has far more freak show fights (i.e. the Shaq v. Hong Man Choi possibility ), but they are never, ever deceptive about the fights. It's always marketed as a freak show.

One of the many reasons I don't like what Dana does is the fact that he will try and tell us that the UFC's freak shows are legitimate fights that PIT BOXING VERSUS UFC FOR THE ULTIMATE COMBAT SHOWDOWN!!!! or something to that effect. Or that Brock Lesnar's second fight was one of the biggest HW bouts of all time, etc. etc. It's just the constant barrage of marketing that tests the limits of hyperbole that wears on me.

But pot shots, yes .

As for developing the sport, only as an extension of developing the UFC. There are a litany of things one could list to show how the UFC is concerned about the UFC before MMA as a whole. I think MMA owes a shit-ton to the UFC, but the latters priorities are only its own pockets.

But just on the development point - checking out the UFC heavyweight roster. You have three Dutch guys, a couple of Brazilians, one aging Croat and one aging Frenchman. Everyone else is from the US, the vast majority via TUF.

Seems strange to me that the only country churning out top level heavyweights is the US.

JP wrote:many expected Toney to have worked his ground defence at least A BIT!

As discussed, I never expected that. Dana admitted he didn't expect it either.

Old dudes can sometimes still perform in the sport they've always done thanks to experience and memory. Couture is an amazing wrestler/dirty boxer. Toney still retains some old-school boxing feints and skills. But to ask these guys to pick up a completely new skill set at this stage of their career is fantasy land. No-one who had seen Toney fight in the last ten years could have expected him to defend a takedown.

This fight sickens me. Dana's place as the custodian of mma is misplaced. He needs to go back to teaching boxercise and let people with a bit more vision and sense run the sport.